Hollywood actress Sarah Michelle Gellar’s hit show Buffy The Vampire Slayer has been blamed for 50,000 women abandoning traditional Western religion to study paganism.

According to the recent British study published in Women and Religion in the West, young women have taken an increased interest in practising witchcraft after Gellar’s hit U.S. TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit the mainstream.

The study’s author Dr Kristin Aune said: “Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, popularised by the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In short, women are abandoning the church.”

The Church of England has declined to comment on the study.